2 comments:

Well, Healthcare passed, albeit by only 3 votes. It appears to have been primarily a referendum on the remaining viability of the Obama presidency, as he was certainly cooked if it didn't pass. That said, the GOP certainly has time to strip it of everything they didn't like, as benefits don't kick in for years, and come the next economic downturn, the tax increases meant to pay for it will be stripped out as well.

The bill is living proof of the hazards of bipartisanship, as it seems to have been designed to please almost no one from the start. Since single payer and public option were never on the table in the first place, we never got a proper hearing on the advantages they would have provided. Other than a few tax increases for the super wealthy, this is a bill the GOP should have loved, as it's virtually their bill in the first place. They're simply becoming a parody, as their actions no longer make any sense as anything other than purely mean-spirited obstructionist.

Unfortunately, this bill will in all liklihood be just another casualty of the looming US debt default. Social Security, Medicare, Healthcare, and all federal pensions are just so much fantasy over the long term. As economic growth becomes economic retrenchment in the face of massive debts and rising energy costs, all of the current economic fantasies will be revealed as the ponzi schemes they've always been, and the Washington spin cycle will kick into overdrive trying to pass the buck of responsibility.

Unfortunately, we've now exhausted every financial and accounting trick in the book. The national credit card's been maxed, the money supply's been ballooned to dangerous levels, interest rate's are near zero, taxes continue to be cut, and every economic indicator that can be has been fudged. Somewhere along the way we crossed the line and officially became a national farce; a parody of an actual global hegemon.

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